Applications of Repeated Games in Wireless Networks: A Survey

TL;DR

This survey reviews how repeated game theory models are used to promote cooperation among wireless network nodes, addressing conflicts caused by selfish behaviors to enhance overall network performance.

Contribution

It provides a comprehensive overview of repeated game applications in wireless networks, discussing models, solutions, and future research directions.

Findings

Repeated games effectively encourage cooperation among wireless nodes.

Various models and solutions address selfish behaviors in networks.

Open issues highlight future research opportunities.

Abstract

A repeated game is an effective tool to model interactions and conflicts for players aiming to achieve their objectives in a long-term basis. Contrary to static noncooperative games that model an interaction among players in only one period, in repeated games, interactions of players repeat for multiple periods; and thus the players become aware of other players' past behaviors and their future benefits, and will adapt their behavior accordingly. In wireless networks, conflicts among wireless nodes can lead to selfish behaviors, resulting in poor network performances and detrimental individual payoffs. In this paper, we survey the applications of repeated games in different wireless networks. The main goal is to demonstrate the use of repeated games to encourage wireless nodes to cooperate, thereby improving network performances and avoiding network disruption due to selfish behaviors. Furthermore, various problems in wireless networks and variations of repeated game models together with the corresponding solutions are discussed in this survey. Finally, we outline some open issues and future research directions.